Wednesday, December 30, 2009

God’s love is a gift that can make you forget yourself at times. The Scottish writer George MacDonald said, “It is the heart that is not yet sure of its God that is afraid to laugh in his presence.” God loves us as we are right now! That’s one of the things I’m most grateful for. I love the freedom to be myself in God. I pray that a year from now, five years from now, I will be a godlier woman, but I know God won’t love me any more than he does right this minute.

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

A king like Herod had soldiers to help keep the peace, to help stop criminals from making victims of the law-abiding citizens. But Herod also used those same soldiers to murder the babies of Bethlehem. On the cross, Jesus would reveal the flaw to our entire social order: you simply cannot use violent means to stop violence, if we ever want the violence to ultimately come to an end. So, instead, Jesus suffered the violence to make an example of it, that we might one day see the light.

Monday, December 28, 2009

Since December 27 fell on a Sunday this year, St. John's day was transferred to the 28th and Holy Innocents is tranferred to the 29th. (Feasts of Our Lord always take precedence over other feasts and Sundays are all feasts of Our Lord.)

The Orthodox churches refer to this John as Apostle, Evangelist and Theologian and petition him with this prayer:

Beloved apostle of Christ our God,hasten to deliver a defenseless people.He who allowed you to recline on His breast,receives you as you bow before Him.Implore Him, John the Theologian,to dispel heathen persistenceand to grant us peace and mercy.

Friday, December 25, 2009

In the Greek mosaic above, created around the year 1100, midwives are shown bathing the newborn Jesus. This has long been an important image for the Eastern Church because it symbolizes the baptism that is to be.

One tradition has it that the biblical Mary Salome was midwife to Our Lady. But the Irish legend is that Saint Brigit was mystically transported through time and space so that she could serve as midwife at the birth of Jesus. Thus, she is invoked by Irish women during labor.

"There are many things from which I might have derived good, by which I have not profited, I dare say," returned the nephew: "Christmas among the rest. But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round--apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that--as a good time: a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they were really fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!"

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Mary doesn't understand what is going on; the archangel's reply to her question, "How shall this be?" is a mystery. Gabriel only assures Mary that God will overshadow her in the Holy Spirit. But Mary senses the kind of terror that comes from being in God's presence (rather than the horror that comes from being in the presence of evil). She surrenders her assured future as the wife of a carpenter named Joseph to play the unknowable part God wills for her as Mother of the Savior.

How many times must we hear this basic Gospel truth to learn it? We have been waiting for so long for God in our lives. We have sung many hymns praying for the advent of God in our lives. But have we yet learned that the word of God addressed to Mary through the Archangel Gabriel, is the same word God addresses to us: "Hail favored one, the Lord is with you." How many of us understand that God is waiting for us to say "Let it be to me according to your word," just as God waited for Mary to say it?

-- The Reverend Marie Phillips*

So. The Annuciation is not to the Blessed Virgin Mary only. There is another annuciation to each one of us. That is a daunting thought, isn't it? And a reassuring one as well.

* Marie Phillips, a priest in the Diocese of Ohio, is Chaplain for Hospice of the Western Reserve and a Pastoral Associate for the Episcopal West Side Shared Ministries, a cluster of parishes serving the inner city

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Dear God, the troubles of our world have left many of us speechless. We don’t know how, in the numbness around jobs lost, illnesses we don’t have the resources to cure, a planet imperiled by the accumulated effects of our greed, and the seemingly endless presence of war and violence, to say our prayers. We are lighting candles, though – in our Advent wreaths, quietly, in side chapels of our churches, in our rooms where no one else but You can see. The candle flame is our prayer, wordless but filled with meaning, with petition, hope, and faith. And the candle flame is your answer to our prayer. You lighten our darkness, O Lord. Amen.

Monday, December 21, 2009

What do we do when something to which we have totally committed ourselves is destroyed before our very eyes? What do we do when powerful and faceless institutions suddenly crush someone to whom we have given total loyalty? And what do we do when our immediate reaction in the actual moment of crisis is to run and hide, for fear of the madding crowds? Such were the questions of most of the disciples, including Thomas, who had supported and followed Jesus of Nazareth for the better part of three years.

The doubting Thomas within each of us must be touched. We are asked to respond to the wounds first within ourselves then in others. Even in our weakness, we are urged to breathe forth the Spirit so that the wounds may be healed and our fears overcome. With Thomas we will believe, when our trembling hand finally and hesitantly reaches out to the Lord in the community of faith. The words addressed to Thomas were given to us: “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed!”

Sunday, December 20, 2009

This morning's gospel reading tells us about an occasion known as the Visitation:

When they meet and Elizabeth recognizes in Mary something beyond the ordinary, something revealed to her through the Holy Spirit, she calls Mary "the mother of my Lord." She blesses Mary for believing in God's promises, in the fulfillment of "what was spoken to her by the Lord." It is a time of ecstasy for both of them.

...

They are two related women who are filled with the Holy Spirit and are delighted at the reality of the children in their wombs. In her hymn of praise to God, Mary focuses on what matters to her, a poor young woman who is obedient to God and who recognizes her humble origins. She senses that in her, in the promise of her child, in the words of God's messenger, something good is happening--not only to her but to other human beings.

* It is the humble who are being raised.* It is those who feel awe before God their maker that are shown mercy.* The powerful are brought down.* The lowly are lifted up.* And the hungry are fed.

Friday, December 18, 2009

O Adonai, and leader of the House of Israel,who appeared to Moses in the fire of the burning bushand gave him the law on Sinai:Come and redeem us with an outstretched arm.

Here's a little comment about the O antiphons that I like very much:

We look forward to the antiphons in their own right each year, because their appearance on the calendar means that we can quicken our own hopes in anticipation of the Saviour's birth. Their arrival is much like seeing a familiar highway exit still just a little way away from home, or a train stop not far from one's intended destination. They comfort, heighten, calm and focus, but they are also direct and demanding.

It's from Anglicans Online and you can find the whole reflection right here.

Monday, December 14, 2009

And I saw the river over which every soul must pass to reach the kingdom of heaven and the name of that river was suffering: and I saw a boat which carries souls across the river and the name of that boat was love.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

I have always truly loved this morning's Epistle reading (Philippians 4:4-7). And so I was delighted to find the following:

As Karl Barth put it, the joy that Paul describes is a defiant "nevertheless," which draws strength from the gospel story and from laying one's deepest concerns before God "with thanksgiving." This joy seems to take root even in darkness. It is encouraged by the spread of the gospel, the growth of a young church, but most of all by the deep joy of God's presence and the hope this gives for whatever the future may hold.

Friday, December 11, 2009

Since Hanukkah began tonight at sunset, I want to bring you the following:

1. What does Chanukah mean? The word Chanukah means dedication. It refers to the re-dedication and re-opening, in the year 164 Before the Common Era, of the Temple that stood in Jerusalem until the year 70 of the Common Era. Temple worship had been interrupted by a war between local Jews and colonial forces from the Seleucid empire to the north and east.

2. This Chanukah, liberate yourself spiritually. Whether you are Jewish or not, take a moment to consider those things to which you are dedicated. To what might you re-dedicate yourself with renewed commitment? To whom can you turn for support in doing so? As you do this, you will be following in the footsteps of Judah Maccabbee and the other ancient Chanukah heroes who asked those very questions, and found spiritual liberation when they answered them.

This morning I came across a reflection on Sunday's gospel reading that impresses me greatly. It is by by Kate Huey and I found it on the United Church of Christ website. If you have time, please go on over and read the entire piece; you'll be glad you did. In the meantime, I offer this snippet:

John came preaching a message of challenge and exhortation. In his day, the powers-that-be had arranged a world based on empire, with those at the top grabbing – through force and greed – the lion's share of power and material wealth for themselves (imagine that!). It wasn't just the Roman Empire and their puppets that experienced his wrath, but the religious institutions as well felt the sting of John's rebuke. John's message about the forgiveness of sins and being baptized in a river made the Temple and its elaborate systems run by powerful priests sound rather unnecessary.

That last sentence truly caught my attention. I never thought about the baptism of John making the temple penitential system unnecessary. That explains a lot, doesn't it?

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

I really never thought about despair quite this way before. Take a look:

The message John proclaimed was simple, "repent, he is coming." Jesus is the one who came. He changed everything. His resurrection is the ultimate change. Death no longer has the final say over our lives and us. The fact that death no longer has the last word is hard for us. Despair is a changeless place to live. Nothing can happen that will change anything. Despair is perfect stability. We humans crave stability.

But that craving is a consequence of our fears and our sins. Be your own personal prophet. Examine yourself by God's will and God's law. Claim and accept that God loves you and seeks to give you a new life that is happy with change because you are not offended by Jesus. Repent. He is coming.

Sunday, December 6, 2009

It troubles me how many people think that to repent means to feel very, very guilty about something. And so I like this brief excerpt from a sermon for today:

Repentance is not the same as remorse or regret. It is not listing all the ways things could have gone differently. It is not wishing you were a better person, that some things had never happened, that bad things wouldn’t keep happening to you. It’s not feeling guilty or ashamed. It’s not feeling afraid. It’s not something that leaves us stuck, or standing still, or spinning in circles, going nowhere.

Repentance is about movement, letting yourself be grasped by God, getting new bearings, and relying on God for directions.

The new life that follows repentance, the new direction that comes with a fresh start is what John was proclaiming in the wilderness. John’s message is a call to action: repent, turn around, accept help. God is coming to meet you on a road in the wilderness.

This morning's readings, of course, practically demand this beginning of Handel's "Messiah". Now, I've performed this often enough under the direction of so-called "Baroque purists" that I don't really like the following Romantic interpretation that was so popular in the 50s. Nevertheless, there is simply no tenor who comes even close, in my opinion, to this astonishing performance by the great Jon Vickers:

Saturday, December 5, 2009

We're going to be seeing a lot of representations of angels in the next three of weeks so I thought I'd bring you the following:

They manifest a nature's sublimity. That is why Gabriel is represented with wings. Not that angels have wings, but that you may know that they leave the heights and the most elevated dwelling to approach human nature. Accordingly, the wings attributed to these powers have no other meaning than to indicate the sublimity of their nature.

Friday, December 4, 2009

You know, if we only paid attention to the controversial issues of the day, we could easily be forgiven for concluding that Christianity is all about rules and monitoring people's behavior. In the excerpt from an Advent sermon below, the preacher claims that Christianity, in fact, is about something altogether different:

In part we've got it wrong because we have misunderstood Christianity. We have failed to understand that we belong to a religion of relationship, not a religion of law. In a law religion it is our job to follow the rules, and, if a messiah is part of the package, it is also our job to wait for that messiah to come, following the rules in the meantime. In a religion of relationship, in Christianity, our job is to acknowledge our relationship with God and to engage in that relationship as living beings, just as God is a living being. That is our essential commitment as Christians: by becoming Christian we commit to a relationship with God, with Jesus -- not to a rule of law, but to life with another human being who is also God.

Living well with Jesus, thus living well in the kingdom of God, requires what all relationships that flourish require: presence -- listening, responding, listening again, responding and so on. It is hard to have a healthy relationship with someone if you never show up or only rarely acknowledge their existence. The relationship does exist no matter what you do, but it is simply an unhealthy or inactive relationship if you fail to participate as active partner. Those of us who have unhealthy and inactive relationships with Jesus have them more out of ignorance than out of ill will; but ignorance is easy enough to overcome, and a new church year is a good time to work on that overcoming.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

I am bringing you this single paragraph from an Advent sermon I found specifically because of the last sentence. C.S. Lewis once said that fear should not be seen as a sin but rather as an affliction. I agree. And here is a remedy - or at least a way of accepting and managing that affliction with the help of God:

[Last Sunday's gospel reading] challenges us, during this Advent season, to live as people who expect God to be near, and that God is doing something new in our lives. In this Advent season of preparation, the time of Christ's coming into the world, we are to live as if we expect just that. Christ's coming. What does that mean to our daily lives? That means we are to see the worries in our lives as possibilities. We are to look anew on the people and situations that trouble us as signs of God's near and living presence. That we can look at the dark skies and the dark places as moments of waiting and anticipating God's nearness. This means that we don't have to be bound by our fear, by we can reach into fear and reach God.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

A reminder here. We all know it, of course. And we need to hear it again and again:

Just as babies are not born without a period of gestation in the darkness of the womb, and just as spring bulbs do not blossom without a waiting period in the dark soil, so we do not bloom and flourish without times of quiet and rest. The season of Advent is one of those times, a time of dark and quiet and preparation. Take advantage of this gift of time — don’t let all your time in the next couple of weeks be totally caught up in the frantic holiday craziness.

Monday, November 30, 2009

Just as Andrew was the first of the Apostles, so his feast is taken in the West to be the beginning of the Church Year. (Eastern Christians begin their Church Year on 1 September.) The First Sunday of Advent is defined to be the Sunday on or nearest his feast (although it could equivalently be defined as the fourth Sunday before Christmas Day).

Several centuries after the death of Andrew, some of his relics were brought by a missionary named Rule to Scotland, to a place then known as Fife, but now known as St. Andrew's, and best known as the site of a world-famous golf course and club. For this reason, Andrew is the patron of Scotland.

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Then [Jesus] told them a parable: "Look at the fig tree and all the trees; as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away."

-- from Luke 21

Here's something I found about the above passage:

Barbara Brown Taylor gets to the heart of the matter, when she concentrates on that fig tree. Perhaps the people "have not done that for awhile. They may have been focused on abstract things, like judgment or salvation, or on dramatic things, like earthquakes and plagues. By directing their attention to a sprouting tree, Jesus let them know that they did not have to work so hard, that God was speaking to them in the most ordinary events of their lives." Taylor wonders about the way we use the time we have (it's really all we have, she says) while we're waiting for Jesus to return. Be alert, yes, she writes, but "[n]ot so you will know when to grab your crash helmet and head for the basement, but so you will know when the kingdom is near. So you will not miss God when God comes"

Friday, November 27, 2009

Sometimes it's very difficult to counteract the false message of the "prosperity gospel" that is being so widely preached today. As a result, many people "lose their faith" when they are beset by difficulties. I really like the following:

God has not promised to take away our trials, but to help us to change our attitudes toward them. That is what holiness really is. In this life, happiness is rooted in our basic attitude toward reality.

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.

Monday, November 23, 2009

Closely linked with the attitude of thanks is the prayer of adoration. This prayer is found in the story of the transfiguration of Jesus (Lk 9:28-35). It is rooted in experiences of seeing more fully the face of God during our faith journey. This method of prayer requires an effort on our part to see beyond the surface of human experience. Dorothy Day once put it this way, "reach out to eternity." Often in private. and passionate ways people reach out to their beloved God. A small child living in a shelter in Denver told me that once when she was on a swing she let herself swing into Jesus' arms. She said that they were so strong and warm that she just liked to think about those arms.

A few weeks after she told me this, I found a holy card of Jesus as a carpenter with his arms bare and strong. I gave the card to the little girl and her response was, "Oh, now I can just look at those arms." Adoration is like looking; adoration is its own goal. Her experience of Jesus has encouraged me to just take time to "look" at Jesus.

I actually understand that. Years ago when I was earning my living as a musician, my orchestra conductor helped me wonderfully with a passage that I was very nervious about. While conducting (with his arms lifted and outstretched, of course) he made eye contact with me and his face had a wonderfully encouraging and confidence-inspiring expression on it. My experience of performing that previously scary passage was like falling into the arms of God. I've never forgotten it.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

In answering Pilate, Jesus says that his kingdom is not of this world. It is a kingdom not fought for with old means of warfare. Rather, it testifies to truth. It will not kill for the truth, it will die for it. If Jesus is king, he will be a suffering king. He will not demand ransom. He will be ransom. He will win, not by spilling the blood of others, but by offering up his own.

Over the centuries Christians have had trouble with this new kind of king, so much have we hungered for the earthly assurances of conquest and control. But it is equally true that the centuries have seen men and women who recognized in Jesus a kingliness that summoned nothing less than the loyalty of a free human heart. Something was unlocked in them when they discovered a "lord of life" whose ambition was not to dominate humanity but to save and serve it.

Those words, "the loyalty of a free human heart", are very powerful. If this is what Christ wants from us, how can we possibly justify the oppression of others or even stand by passively when we see that oppression?

Saturday, November 21, 2009

I may well have shared this quotation with you before but, if so, I think it bears repeating. I also think it's essential that we not just wait to be inspired to this kind of love but, rather, to cultivate it intentionally:

Love all of God's creation, the whole of it and every grain of sand. Love every leaf, every ray of God's light! Love the animals, love the plants, love everything. If you love everything, you will soon perceive the divine mystery in things. Once you perceive it, you will begin to comprehend it better every day. And you will come at last to love the whole world with an all-embracing love.

Friday, November 20, 2009

The silence that Benson refers to here is not at all about isoloation or withdrawal. It is, rather, the stillness that is cultivated by giving ourselves over to the present moment and into which we can tap at any time and in any place - no matter what is going on outwardly:

The silence that I seek cannot merely be the absence of the numbing noise and debilitating detail of life in our society. It must be something more. It must be a solitude that is transcendent, a stillness that can be found in the midst of the noise, a silence that is portable.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Someone has said, "If we could get religion like a Baptist, experience it like a Methodist, be positive about it like a Disciple, be proud of it like an Episcopalian, pay for it like a Presbyterian, propagate it like an Adventist, and enjoy it like an Afro-American -- that would be some religion!"

I must say that I cringe here at the observation that the identifying characteristic of Episcopalians is pride. But, certainly, when Fosdick was preaching and writing, it was to one's social and political advantage to be an Episcopalian. (Not so much now.)

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

I decided to look up the word "gaze" and found this definition: "to look steadily and intently, as with great curiosity, interest, pleasure, or wonder." I also found that the word "gaze is often indicative of wonder, fascination, awe, or admiration."

Gazing at icons and the created world, seeing others and being seen through the eyes of Christ are all forms of prayer. Praying by gaze can be practiced in community as in the Eastern Orthodox tradition where icons fill churches and are part of the liturgy. We can also pray alone in front of a painting or by gazing at the created world in the midst of our busy lives. Gazing helps us attend to the holy that surrounds us in art, nature, and other people. Like other methods of prayer, gazing brings us into a deeper and more intimate relationship with God and opens the possibility of union with our Maker, the ultimate goal of the Christian spiritual life.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Oh, my. This is so good. And I had not come across that assertion by Robert Bly before:

In the spiritual life, nothing goes away. There is no heavenly garbage dump. It's all here, wherever we are. Everything belongs. Even forgiveness does not mean it goes away. It means we forgive it for being there, nothing more. Even our demons do not go away. As Robert Bly wisely said: You don't get rid of demons, you just educate them.

Monday, November 16, 2009

This consoles me, actually! (Not that I want to be burned at the stake, mind you.)

In religion, it is not the sycophants or those who cling most faithfully to the status quo who are ultimately praised. It is the insurgents. Recall how often in human history the saint and the rebel have been the same person. Socrates was a rebel, and he was sentenced to drink hemlock. Jesus was a rebel, and he was crucified for it. Joan of Arc was a rebel, and she was burned at the stake.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Deep in the archives of Psychology Today, I found an excerpt from Thomas Moore's well known book, Care of the Soul. Here's a brief passage that really stood out to me:

There are two ways of thinking about church and religion. One is that we go to church in order to be in the presence of the holy, to learn and to have our lives influenced by that presence. The other is that church teaches us directly and symbolically to see the sacred dimension of everyday life. In this latter sense, religion is an "art of memory," a way of sustaining mindfulness about the religion that is inherent in everything we do. For some, religion is a Sunday affair, and they risk dividing life into the holy Sabbath and the secular week. For others, religion is a week-long observance that is inspired and sustained on the Sabbath.

Which one is it for you? Is it, perhaps, sometimes one, sometimes the other?

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Thursday, November 12, 2009

The Christian life is not about pleasing God the finger-shaker and judge. It is not about believing now or being good now for the sake of heaven later. It is about entering a relationship in the present that begins to change everything now. Spirituality is about this process: the opening of the heart to God who is already here.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

On this day, we remember the peace accord that brought the First World War to a close. And as we honor and thank military veterans around the world for their service, we also remember those who have suffered great physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual damage as a result of such service, and we pray for their restoration. Moreover, we yearn for that day when swords will be beaten into plowshares, and we will make war no more. May it come to pass, Lord, and soon.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

You know, Dale Carnegie is not someone I would generally think of quoting on this blog but here's something he said that I really, really believe:

You have it easily in your power to increase the sum total of this world's happiness now. How? By giving a few words of sincere appreciation to someone who is lonely or discouraged. Perhaps you will forget tomorrow the kind words you say today, but the recipient may cherish them over a lifetime.

Monday, November 9, 2009

As I've shared with you before, I think, Buechner is one of my favorite writers:

Compassion is sometimes the fatal capacity for feeling what it is like to live inside somebody else's skin. It is the knowledge that there can never really be any peace and joy for me until there is peace and joy finally for you too.

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Willibrord is a symbol of ties between the Christians of England and those of Holland. Today the historic See of Utrecht is in full communion with the Church of England.

He also strongly campaigned against idolatry. And so I offer you the following:

Do not suppose that abuses are eliminated by destroying the object which is abused. Men can go wrong with wine and women. Shall we prohibit and abolish women? The sun, moon, and stars have been worshipped. Shall we pluck them out of the sky?...Whatever your heart clings to and confides in, that is really your God.

Friday, November 6, 2009

William Temple was the 98th Archbishop of Canterbury. Here's something that was said about him:

In response to being accused of holding certain beliefs about God because of the way he was raised, he responded, "That is as it may be. But the fact remains that you believe I believe what I believe because of the way I was brought up, because of the way you were brought up."

It's amusing and clever but it's also something to reflect about with some seriousness.

I developed a real appreciation for the notion of subversive spirituality when I lived in South Africa. Desmond Tutu used to say, "If governments knew how subversive contemplative prayers is, they would ban it."

We had rather follow the perfections of them whom we like not, than in defects resemble them whom we love.

And here's the one that moves and touches me the most:

Dangerous it were for the feeble brain of man to wade far into the doings of the Most High; whom although to know be life, and joy to make mention of his name, yet our soundest knowledge is to know that we know him not as indeed he is, neither can know him; and our safest eloquence concerning him is our silence, when we confess without confession that his glory is inexplicable, his greatness above our capacity and reach.

Our safest eloquence concerning the Most High is our silence. Oh, yes.